[ExI] brave new world in education

Dave Sill sparge at gmail.com
Tue Jun 27 17:31:56 UTC 2017


On Tue, Jun 27, 2017 at 11:30 AM, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:

> Also in the past week we have discussed the value of a liberal arts
> education.  I do recognize that debate rages, but at the same time I will
> make the claim that a liberal arts education is of little value to a
> company
> in a desperate race to compete in low cost access to space or programming
> the latest robot toy.  They don't need that degree and do not want to pay
> for it.
>

They don't need that for the worker bees that'll first be replaced by
robots and AIs. They'll wish that their technical and managerial leaders
had it because it gives them a solid foundation in critical thinking,
communication, etc. As a parent or student deciding on trade school vs.
liberal arts education, the former is more for average students/thinkers
who want/need a "safe" route to a likely good-paying job (modulo AI/robot
displacement) and the latter is more for excellent students who want to
hone the skills necessary for a career that can change the future. Think of
it as choosing between the Steve Wozniak path or the Steve Jobs path. As a
techie I admire Wozniak's achievements but it was Jobs who had the vision
that changed the world. We're not far from a Wozniak-level AI but a
Jobs-level AI is basically inconceivable.

Pondering the future of education, the biggest change coming is likely a
> rapid expansion in the options for certifying specific skills, analogous to
> taking state boards exams for a professional engineer's license.  Is not
> that the biggest coming revolution in education?
>

The certification route would certainly be more efficient/faster/cheaper
than the current "4+-year degree followed by work experience" method. But
outcompeting AIs is only going to be an option for a pretty small time
slice.

-Dave
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